Plans for a new Wal-Mart Supercenter in Lake Elsinore have been available to the public for two years.

Now, residents can see the environmental impact analysis and supporting studies – all 5,400 pages of them – for the project in the northeastern section of the city.

As expected, some favor the plan … and some do not.

“I think it’s going to bring property values down,” said Mike Matthews, who would be neighbors with the store if built. “I also think the effect on the neighborhood is going to be even worse. It’s bad enough that we’ve already got shopping carts strewn around and homeless everywhere. It’s going to bring more traffic congestion.”

Others, however, expressed support when Wal-Mart representatives submitted the application in July 2013. The retail giant also plans to build a store in Wildomar, while shutting down its southern Lake Elsinore site.

The plan on Central is to erect a 154,487-square-foot Supercenter and two small retail buildings on an 18-acre lot facing Central and stretching along Cambern to Third Street, a dirt road.

While Third Street is mostly rural, Central is the hub of a bustling commercial district straddling I-15.

Approval of the project requires an environmental impact report. Residents have until Oct. 13 to respond in writing, after which a final report will be developed.

Traffic is among the concerns typically addressed in such reports. The Lake Elsinore study devotes more than 2,000 pages to it, recommending 38 requirements beyond what is already in the project design.

“We had some challenges … but I think we’ve got the EIR in a pretty good place to address the impacts,” Community Development Director Grant Taylor said. “Our goal is to get it to the council by Christmas.”

EIRs don’t usually examine socioeconomic concerns, but the Lake Elsinore tome takes on one raised by Matthews.

“Let’s bring in businesses that can fill the vacancies instead of a store that will increase the vacancies we have,” he said.

That fear is the focus of an urban decay analysis.

“That is an issue that has come up with Wal-Mart projects over the years, not just here but all over,” said City Planning Manager Richard MacHott.

The theory is Wal-Mart, because of its size and cheaper prices, displaces competitors.

“The concept of urban decay is when you have vacancies, it becomes blight,” MacHott said. “When stores are vacant, they’re boarded up. That’s a physical change that a new project might have on existing commercial and that’s why the Wal-Mart report discusses that.”

The analysis concludes the center, including a full-sized grocery, would initially subtract business from other stores, but they would recover with population growth.

“The conclusion is that there would be no adverse impact due to urban decay,” MacHott said.

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